How We Moved to Paris: Visa, Housing, and Healthcare

Categories: Moving to France, Paris

This week I bring you a conversation with Sacha Cohen. She moved to Paris with her husband in December 2025. If you're wondering how to move to Paris and what that actually looks like day to day, this conversation covers a lot of ground: the visa, the apartment hunt, the bank account, healthcare, and the parts nobody puts on a postcard.

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Two and a Half Years of Scouting First

Sacha and her husband didn't just pick Paris out of a hat. Over two and a half years, they spent extended stretches in Rouen, Dijon, Bordeaux, Toulouse, Rennes, the Loire Valley, Lille, Aix-en-Provence, and Cassis before deciding on Paris. They loved Dijon. They loved Bordeaux. But Paris won out for the international community, the direct connections back to the US and around Europe, and the sheer amount going on. If you're trying to figure out how to move to Paris versus somewhere smaller, her advice is straightforward: go spend real time in a few places before you commit. A weekend trip won't tell you what a month will.

How to Move to Paris: Visa and Paperwork

They're in France on a long stay visitor visa, renewed every year, and Sacha is now looking at the profession libérale and micro entrepreneur visas so she can work again. She was a magazine writer and editor for years and ran her own communication strategy business before the move. French administrative paperwork does not move fast, and she was upfront about the frustration that comes with it: mailing driver's license translations, sorting out photo requirements, and generally accepting that things take longer here than they do in the US.

Setting Up a Life: Bank, Healthcare, Housing

Beyond the visa, we walked through the practical setup that anyone researching how to move to Paris will eventually need: opening a French bank account, registering with the healthcare system and finding a general practitioner, and renting an apartment as a foreigner, including picking the right arrondissement. She rented through a company called Blueground before landing her current apartment, and she talked candidly about the parts that were harder than expected, including bouts of homesickness even though the move was exactly what she wanted.

Midlife Reinvention

Sacha writes a Substack called A Good Vintage, about midlife and reinvention in France, and much of our conversation touched on what it means to uproot a settled life in your fifties. She's building a new professional chapter here, one visa application at a time, and she's candid that not every French city will suit every person. She didn't love Lyon. She loved Rouen. That's the nature of it.

There's no magazine segment this week. The recording ran long, and I was traveling in Brittany.

Check Out Join Us in France Video

While you're here, take a look at Join Us in France Video on YouTube. It's a newer channel where I'm building out content related to France beyond the audio podcast, and I'd love for you to follow along.

Don't Miss an Episode

If you're seriously considering a move to Paris yourself, listen to the full episode for all the detail Sacha shared. And if you'd like updates on new episodes and what I'm working on, sign up for my newsletter at joinusinfrance.com/newsletter.